Sebastian Korda of the United States has a golden opportunity to make it to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open 2024. Korda is one of the few American hopefuls still alive in the competition. However, it could be an uphill task for him as he will be up against 5th seed Andrey Rublev.
Interestingly, Sebastian Korda’s father, Petr Korda had won the Australian Open men’s singles title back in 1998. So the 29th seeded American must surely be inspired to carry on that legacy 26 years later. Korda had a tough start to the tournament, being stretched to a 5-set encounter against Vit Kopriva in Round 1. However, he found his footing in Round 2 with a straight sets win over Quentin Halys.
His opponent, Andrey Rublev too is finding his feet slowly in the competition. Rublev got a massive scare in the first round too, nearly losing a see-saw 5-set clash against the unseeded Brazilian, Thiego Seyboth Wild. The Russian was more convincing though in his 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win against another American, Chris Eubanks in Round 2.
The Korda vs Rublev clash at the Margaret Court Arena has the potential to go down as another ripping five-set clash. Last year, Sebastian Korda had knocked out the current World No.3, Daniil Medvedev in the third round of the Australian Open itself. The American then progressed to beat the now World No.9 Hubert Hurkacz in a 5-setter in the fourth round, before getting knocked out in the quarterfinals by Karen Khachanov.
However, this is the first time Sebastian Korda has made it past the 2nd round of a Grand Slam in 12 months. So he is a work in progress and that gives Andrey Rublev a huge advantage. Rublev is one player amongst the youngsters who has always shown lot of promise for winning a Grand Slam someday, making it to 3 Grand Slam quarterfinals in 2023. Additionally, Rublev is in top form, winning the Hong Kong Open 2024 before coming to the Australian Open.
When it comes to the Korda vs Rublev head-to-head, the Russian has won both the matches in which they have faced off against each other so far in their careers. Both were on hard courts and their last clash was in the finals of the Gijon Open in 2022.
Sebastian Korda vs Andrey Rublev prediction and updates
The Russian does have more experience and results to back up his ability when it comes to playing in many clutch moments and mostly, against players outside the top 10 in the ATP rankings. As a result, The SportsRush predicts a win for Andrey Rublev in 4 sets or more, even as Korda has the ability to pull off a surprise performance.
The match will be broadcast and live streamed in the United States on ESPN 2 and ESPN+ not before 4.15 AM EST on Friday, January 19 morning. In Australia, the match will be broadcast on Channel 9 and 9Now for free-of-cost at 8.15 PM local time. The weather in Melbourne around that time is expected to be cloudy with 66% humidity and just 2% chance of rain, according to Weather.com. So the match will mostly not require the roof to come on, making it an outdoors clash that gives both the players a fair, fighting chance against each other since Korda and Rublev, both are proficient on hard courts.
